June 11, 2018 by Cherry Lane
At Cherry Lane, we work closely with SPILLERS to ensure we can offer our customers a range of feeds to suit every horse’s needs. Over the summer months, many horse owners struggle to maintain their horses’ waistline due to more turn out time and the British weather often causing an abundance of green green grass. So we caught up with Spillers to get their advice on how to manage the diet of a ‘good doer
The term ‘good doer’ is often used to describe horses and ponies that maintain or gain weight easily. Although ponies, native breeds and warmbloods can often be tagged with this term, every horse or pony is an individual –and even some thoroughbreds can seem to live of fresh air!
Should we be concerned about our horse’s weight?
Obesity is a growing problem in the UK, and presents a number of health risks:
• Increased risk of laminitis
• Increased risk of insulin dysregulation
• Increased respiratory strain
• Joint strain/ osteoarthritis
• Heat intolerance
• Impact on the horse/ pony’s energy levels and performance
Whilst signing your horse up for the local Weight Watchers group may not be possible, there are many things you can do to help keep your horse’s waistline in check. Here’s a few of our top tips;
• Monitor your horse or pony’s body condition on a regular basis as this will help you to keep a track of gradual changes and adjust their diet accordingly.
• Maintain a regular exercise programme where possible to help burn off a few extra calories.
• Avoid over-rugging as making the most of chilly periods will help your horse use their own reserves for keeping warm.
• Remember, energy = calories! If your horse is already in good or overweight condition, don’t be tempted to increase their feed ration in an attempt to improve energy levels.
• Avoid mixes and cereal based feeds as these are generally higher in sugar and starch compared to a cube.
• Whilst forage alone can easily meet or exceed the energy (calorie) requirement for many good doers, it’s unlikely to provide a balanced diet on its own. Adding a feed balancer will provide a concentrated source of vitamins, minerals and quality protein your horse needs but without providing unnecessary calories.
Feeding forage should make up the bulk of your horse’s diet and ideally it should be provided ad-lib. However, in some cases forage may need to be restricted, but intake should not be restricted to less than 15g per kg bodyweight dry matter per day including grazing. Although most people would associate lush green grass with a high sugar content, hay can be deceptively high in sugar as well, regardless of the cut, smell or physical appearance. Soaking your horse’s hay for 12-16 hours in tepid water can reduce water soluble carbohydrate (sugar + fructan, the storage form of sugar in grass) by up to 50%. In warm weather, soaking time should be reduced to a maximum of 6 hours to prevent the hay from fermenting.
One of the biggest challenges with owning a good doer on a restricted diet is extending their eating times to prevent boredom and frustration. We’ve come up with the following tips to help keep your horse occupied for longer;
• Try dividing hay/ haylage into several, double netted, small-holed haylage nets as this will make it more of a challenge for your horse to pull the hay out thus making them take longer to finish the net(s).
• Try adding a low calorie chaff/ fibre such as Spillers Happy Hoof to their bucket to provide ‘bulk’ so that it’s not all scoffed in two seconds flat!
• If you feed a cube, these could be placed in a feed ball, which your horse has to play with in order for the cubes to fall out acting as a trickle feeder.
• When turned out, consider using a grazing muzzle which has been shown to reduce grass intake by 80% on average regardless of the season.
We hope you have found this information useful but if you have any further questions about feeding a good doer, you can speak to one of the nutritionists at Spillers on 01908 22 66 26 or contact them via email
